Industry Task Force

Agribusiness Task Force

    Scaling Regenerative Agriculture

    The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Agribusiness Task Force was launched in 2020 with the aim of accelerating the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices within the industry, while ensuring positive partnerships with the world's farmers.

    Former Mars Inc. CEO, Grant Reid, chairs the Task Force.

    The Current State of Play

    green-wheat

    Despite clear long-term benefits, the rate of farmers adopting regenerative agriculture has been slow due to the costs of changing existing practices, the lack of knowledge on regenerative practices, and the misalignment of value chain drivers. According to sustainability analysts Systemiq, the regenerative farming growth rate must triple to reach 40% of global cropland, and deliver against the planet’s need to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees.

    What Business Can Do to Drive Change

    To progress the adoption of regenerative practices, the Agribusiness Task Force has focused on three value chain case studies - notably Basmati rice in India, potatoes in the United Kingdom and wheat in the United States. The findings from these case studies were shared in the Task Force's 2022 'Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan', which details five key issues which require urgent action to make regenerative farming more appealing to farmers. The Big Five are:

    • Costs: Create mechanisms to share the cost of farmers' transition with other stakeholders

    • Sourcing: Develop new sourcing models to share transition costs across the value chains

    • Income: Build farmers' income from environmental outcomes

    • Policy: Ensure government policy enables and rewards farmers for transitioning

    • Metrics: Agree on common metrics to measure environmental outcomes

    In 2023, the Task Force brought together the different members of the agribusiness value chain (e.g. financial institutions, food manufacturers, farmer organisations and others) to map out the levers that could unlock the Big Five issues. Four levers were identified and defined to be farmer-centric and practical. The Levers for Implementation are:

    • Financial: develop funding and de-risking mechanisms, and new sourcing models

    • Ecosystem Service Market: make environmental outcomes pay

    • Policy: ensure government policy rewards farmers on their transition journey

    • Metrics: set up common metrics to measure and monetise outcomes

    Put together, these four levers aim to provide farmers with a menu of options to choose from to start and continue their transition towards regenerative agriculture. This menu of options is what we call our Blueprint, and is made of financial incentives, de-risking mechanisms, technical support, and peer-to-peer support.

    The Task Force members, alongside financial institutions, are now looking to test this approach and deploy this menu of options on pilots in different regions. This implementation phase will serve to adapt and refine our approach to scaling regenerative agriculture.

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    News

    The Agribusiness Task Force launches Blended Finance Framework to make Regenerative Farming Mainstream  

    The Task Force of companies including Mars, McCain Foods, McDonald’s, Mondelez International, PepsiCo and Waitrose today announced the launch of a new blended finance framework that could unlock trillions of dollars for regenerative agriculture.

    View the full report

    Agribusiness Task Force

    Key Resources

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        SMI Agri Report
        White Paper 02 December 2023

        Scaling Regenerative Farming: Levers For Implementation

        The Sustainable Market Initiative’s Agribusiness Task Force unveils a framework to make regenerative farming financially viable and scalable.
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        Agribusiness Photo
        White Paper 03 November 2022

        Full Report: Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan

        The Sustainable Markets Initiative's Agribusiness Task Force makes clear what the private sector can do to make regenerative farming a 'no-brainer' for farmers and accelerate its adoption worldwide.
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        Agribusiness Executive Summary White Paper
        White Paper 03 November 2022

        Executive Summary: Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan

        The Sustainable Markets Initiative's Agribusiness Task Force makes clear what the private sector can do to make regenerative farming a 'no-brainer' for farmers and accelerate its adoption worldwide.

        Task Force Members

        The Agribusiness Task Force is chaired by Grant F. Reid, former CEO of Mars Incorporated. The Task Force is comprised of leaders from the Agribusiness industry, including:

        Mars Inc. and non-Executive member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative

        Grant F. Reid

        Former CEO
        Bayer

        Rodrigo Santos

        Member of the board of Management
        HowGood

        Alexander Gillett

        CEO
        Indigo Agriculture

        Dean Banks

        CEO
        Lloyds Banking Group

        Charlie Nunn

        CEO
        MARS

        Andrew Clarke

        Global President
        McCain Foods

        Max Koeune

        CEO
        McDonald's

        Paul Pomroy

        SVP International Operated Markets
        Mondelēz International

        Dirk Van de Put

        CEO
        Olam

        Sunny George Verghese

        CEO
        PepsiCo

        Ramon Laguarta

        CEO & Chairman
        Sustainable Food Trust

        Patrick Holden

        CEO & Founder
        Waitrose & Partners

        James Bailey

        Executive Director
        Yara International

        Svein Tore Holsether

        President & CEO

        Further Information

        For Task Force enquiries please contact:

        Email: info@sustainable-markets.org